Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1887-04-29
DEAD MANS CANON.
1t was a warm day in April.

to the end of the line, then he walked
on for some distance and turned up the
hill to the left and took the road which
leads down through Dead Mans Canon.
As he walked down the rough road
he noticed little child playing around
a pile Of wood which her father had
been chopping.
Farther down he saw two girls at a
spring, and as the younger drank from a
tin pail she said to her sister, "What
splendid water that is"
Two men who were drawing stone left
their horses an went to the girls for a
drink.
Some negroes were laughing and
talking around a rough house on the
side of the bluff.
All these things Loften noticed as he
walked, and he also noticed two men,
evidently tramps, who sat on a stone in
lonely part Of the canon talking in low
tones, which ceased entirely as he came
nearer. -. -
Loften went on through the canon and
crossed the tracks TO the brewery, where
he was going to look at some new ma
chinery.
After he had examined the machine
he went up Oh the roof of the building,
from which there was IN excellent view
of the valley.
He watched the river winding away
past cultivated lands aud patches of for
est, past sandy fats and rocky bluffs.
He noticed the tall sycamores, with their
white bark, scattered over the valley.
In the distance he could see the piled up
stone and the tall masts of the derricks
for moving it where a great ridge wa,
being built, and near by the cluster of
houses covered with tar paper, where
the workmen lived. On the other side
was the city with its towers and Chin
neys, and over all the dark cloud Of
smoke curling upward. And ;hen there
was the river again, and more flats and
more bluffs and more cultivated land,
forest and white barked sycamores.
Loften went down and started for
home. AS he went up the canon the
men still sat on the stone whispering to-
gether, and again stopped when he came
near.
Itwas growing dark. The men who
mad been drawing stone had left their
wagon by the road and gone for the
night. He met one old negro carrying a
pail of water. There was no one talk
ing before the house now. The spring
was deserted, and the water ran quietly
down the hill. The litto girl and the
man who had been chopping wood were
gone too.
Near the head Of the canon Loftcn
met well dressed man going down.
They nodded as they passed ana said
something about the bad walking.
Loften noticed that black clouds were
gathering, and when lie reached the tor
Of the bluff it was quite dark. He took
a car and went home, and as he went into
his house he heard the roar of distant
thunder.
As the flashes of lightning for a second
i mime the lower end Of Dead Man,
Canon a well dressed man lay in the road
near the rock where tue two tramps had
sat whispering togcther-but the tramp,
we're gone.
1t was still moonlight when the quar-.
rymen started for their work
The storm had gone by aud the sky
was bright with stars.
As they entered the canon the paline
of the moon indicated that tie sun wou {
soon be up and the sky was already
growing red in the east. A light mis-
foated among the tops of the sycamore
trees on the flats.
Suddenly the men stopped.
Right before them on the road lay
man. His clothes were soaked by tht
rain, which had fallen in terrents, and
his white collar and cuffs were soilec
with mud. His head was covered will
mud and blood, and an ugly cash in hi
4 throat showed how he had died.
/ One OF them at once started for th'
t,wl to notify the authorities
The coroner came an to k charge 0
the loly, and men were set at work t,
+ try and di'covvr the murderer
/ Inquiry at tha brewery brought on
he act tlat a strange m had beer